Shaw Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has countered Labour Cabinet Member Councillor Hannah Roberts assertion that both he and his fellow Liberal Democrat Councillors are opposed to housing development on the former Shop Direct site.

“Not only did Councillor Roberts completely misrepresent our position she also described the site as having previously been the ownership of Sports Direct, rather than Shop Direct,” said Councillor Sykes.

“In fact, all three local Liberal Democrat Councillors support housing on the site, as it is far better that it is developed than left empty and developing housing here will help take some pressure off Shaw and Crompton’s Green Belt.”

“Our concern is more that there has been no planning or provision for the extra health and school places that Shaw will require to meet the needs of all of the extra residents.”

The position of the Shaw and Crompton Liberal Democrat councillors was first succinctly set out when the plan went before the Council’s Planning Committee.

Councillor Chris Gloster, speaking as ward member for Shaw said that local councillors “broadly” welcomed the development and described it as “a good development of a brownfield site.”

“However, it is a major development, it is in the centre of Shaw and there’s obviously issues with the influx of up to 400 properties and anything between 800 to 1,600 new residents.

“The greatest concern for ward members and the community is the impact that these additional homes will have on the provision of health and education in the community which is as we know currently stretched.”

After an exchange of emails, Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has secured a u-turn in Council policy over the provision of free bin bags from the Council to the borough’s volunteer litter-pickers.

Councillor Sykes said:  “I am delighted that common sense has finally prevailed.  It was crazy for a Council not to provide free bin bags to members of the public who in their own time are ‘doing their bit’ to help keep our borough clean.”

Councillor Sykes made his request for free bags on behalf of one of his constituents and her friend:

“My constituent has been going out with her friend to collect rubbish, but after running out of bin bags was told they had to pay for their own as the Council was ‘unable to provide any bags’ whilst its policy on litter picks is under review.

“Fortunately a swift review followed my email and this led to a change of heart and  our wonderful local litter-pickers will now at least be able to access free bags and pickers to help them in their work.”

The Oldham Liberal Democrats have submitted their response to the consultation being conducted by the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester outlining their opposition to his latest Places for Everyone plan.

Group Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE summarised the position of Liberal Democrat Councillors to the Mayor’s proposals:

“We remain implacably opposed to any plan to build new homes on our open spaces; our view remains Places for Everyone must not compromise Green Belt for anyone.  We believe that the requirement for new homes can be met with our stated policy to build first and always on brownfield sites, to push for the completion of development on sites with existing planning permission for new housing, and to act with purpose to bring back into use our empty homes or to convert our redundant commercial, retail and leisure premises into residential properties.”

Councillor Sykes and his colleagues are especially concerned that Places for Everyone represents ‘a massive and inequitable land grab’ of Green Belt and open space in the two electoral wards of Shaw and Crompton, and that the local overburdened infrastructure already at breaking point (health, schools, and highways) by the plan to build thousands of new homes across the district.

“Of the 12,800 homes proposed to be built in the Oldham borough, 2,390 will be built just four sites in or around Shaw and Crompton: almost one fifth of the total in just two electoral wards.  The plans will result in the destruction of our Green Belt and other open spaces in Cowlishaw, the Beal Valley and Broadbent Moss, and there are additional plans to build on fields off Denbigh Drive and on the old Shop Direct site.”

“Shaw and Crompton’s primary schools are already bursting at the seams. Unlike neighbouring Royton, Labour has refused to invest in a modern, fit-for-purpose health centre, and took away our swimming baths, our municipal tip, and our youth centre.  Where then are all of these thousands of new residents going to access education for their children or health care for their families?  That is why the Liberal Democrats want a Local Plan which allocates new homes more fairly across the borough and particularly to the Oldham town centre which has the infrastructure.”

Attached: The Liberal Democrat response to the Places for Everyone consultation

I have been informed by the council that despite their best efforts they will not complete all the food and garden collections in Shaw and Crompton today.

They will have a number of small pockets outstanding on the country round (the smaller vehicles used for hard access areas).

Residents are advised that their missed bins will be collected first thing on Saturday morning so you should leave their bins out for collection. They apologise in advance for any inconvenience.

Urgent improvements are needed to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s electric charging strategy, according to the region’s Liberal Democrats, who have warned that the plan seems to have no plan for delivery.

With a new clean air zone planned for Manchester, ensuring that there is the support needed for alternative fuels is crucial. Yet with 3,000 public chargers needed by 2025, the region has just 323 in place, and only plans to add another 54 in the next year.

Oldham Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “This strategy is completely divorced from reality if they think that this is good enough. At this rate, we wouldn’t have a public charging network in place in 50 years, never mind five.

“It is an insult to the drivers who are being told that they must drive green vehicles to avoid a charge that the Greater Manchester Combined Authorities are failing so badly to provide them with an alternative.”

The clean air zone is due to launch on 30 May 2022, and while some finance is available to help companies purchase less polluting vehicles, the lack of public charging points means that there will be minimal practical support for fuelling many of these vehicles.

Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “It is important that we move to more sustainable modes of transport, but with such a lack of a public charging infrastructure, the clean air zone is all stick and no carrot.

“It is a complete failure of national and regional Government to put the necessary facilities in place, and if Andy Burnham and the GMCA are ploughing on with this in the face of these terrible figures, then they are just burying their head in the sand.”

‘It’s no wonder our streets are so dirty,’ said Liberal Democrat Leader when he learned that Oldham Council recently revealed it only spent £845 on new bins over the last three financial years.  And zero in 2020 and 2019.

Councillor Howard Sykes MBE has complained about the failure in his own Shaw ward to replace bins at the Crompton War Memorial and the Kershaw Street Car Park.

“Labour may have promised a grand plan on tackling the rubbish and fly-tipping on our streets in coming months, but what is clear is that for years Labour has failed to spend money to replace the bins needed for people to put rubbish in.”

“Liberal Democrat Councillors recognise you need to get the basics right – and one thing we need to get right moving forward is this Labour Council making a commitment to replacing the bins we have lost.”

“Even more importantly we need an end to the boom-and-bust approach to keeping our borough clean – starve it of cash and its gets dirtier, then announce a big injection of cash.  It need constant investment and attention if we are to make a long-term real impact on litter, dog fouling and fly-tipping.”

Oldham’s valiant volunteer litter pickers cannot even get free bin bags from the Council to aid them in their work.

Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Howard Sykes MBE was shocked to hear that the previous policy to provide them free has been changed under this Labour Administration and is currently ‘under review’.

Councillor Sykes made his request for free bags on behalf of one of his constituents and her friend:

“This lady is a keen litter picker, and has also had a friend come on board, but they have both now ran out of bags.  They have been paying for their own as they have had great difficulty getting through to the Council to request more.” 

He was surprised when he heard that the Council is ‘unable to provide any bags’ and the policy on litter picks is under review.

Responding Councillor Sykes said: “It’s a poor show when this Labour Council cannot even provide free bin bags for our wonderful local volunteers who are working so hard to make their communities clean.”

The Leader of the Oldham Liberal Democrats has written to the Leader of the Council to seek her assurance that a special council meeting will be held in the autumn to discuss the much-awaited report on historic child sexual exploitation in Oldham.

In his letter to the Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE asks for sufficient time to be made available to discuss the report at the scheduled November or December meeting of the Full Council, or, as he would prefer, that ‘a special one agenda item meeting of the Full Council [be convened] as soon as is practicable after publication to enable discussion to take place.’

The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has stated that his intention is to publish the CSE report ‘by November or, at the very latest, by the end of the year.’ The report will be the culmination of a two-year investigation into allegations of child sexual exploitation in Oldham.

In November 2019, Oldham Council and the Oldham Safeguarding Partnership commissioned the independent review from the Mayor of Greater Manchester.  Two experienced investigators, Malcolm Newsam MBE, a childcare expert, and Gary Ridgeway, formerly a senior police officer specialising in public protection, have previously concluded similar investigations at Rotherham and Manchester.

Commenting Councillor Sykes said:  “At my request, the Leader updated members at the July Council on the progress made by the investigation team.  Given the significant public and elected member interest in the findings of this report, I now hope that the Leader will agree to my request to make proper time available at a scheduled Council meeting or, as I would prefer, convene a special one-agenda item meeting to discuss this report once it is published.  In my view, this issue is simply too important to do anything else.”